FreedomWorks - Economic Patriotismhttp://www.freedomworks.org/fieldtags/economic-patriotism
enA True Lack of “Economic Patriotism” in the White Househttp://www.freedomworks.org/content/true-lack-%E2%80%9Ceconomic-patriotism%E2%80%9D-white-house
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Ex-Ohio governor and current co-chairman of President Obama’s re-election campaign, Ted Strickland, called out Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s “economic patriotism” yesterday. &nbsp;In an interview with the <a href="http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/aug/28/romney-lacks-economic-patriotism-ex-gov-/">Youngstown Vindicator</a>, located in the perpetually crucial swing state of Ohio, Strickland cited Romney’s overseas investments as an example of this lack of patriotism.</p><p>To better truly understand the phrase “economic patriotism”, we need not look any further than the words of Strickland’s boss himself. &nbsp;In a 2008 campaign stop in North Dakota, then-candidate <a href="http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2011/08/24/flashback-obama-says-adding-4-trillion-national-debt-unpatriotic">Obama stated</a>: &nbsp;</p><blockquote><p>“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child … That's irresponsible. &nbsp;It's unpatriotic.”</p></blockquote><p>If we take Obama’s assertion that adding $4 trillion to the national debt made Bush unpatriotic, then outpacing that amount in half the time would be downright un-American. &nbsp;President Obama is the first and only leader to have increased the national debt by <a href="http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/17/why-bush-isnt-responsible-for-todays-debt-crisis/">over $1 trillion</a> four consecutive years, totaling roughly $5.3 trillion.</p><p>But there are other unpatriotic aspects to the President’s economic policies.</p><p>Taking Strickland’s statement that shipping resources and funding overseas constitutes a lack of economic patriotism, we see that the Obama administration, and more specifically the President’s stimulus plan, has been a veritable bastion <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2012/07/10/obama-vs-romney-lets-talk-about-outsourcing/">of such tactics</a>.</p><p>• $2.3 billion was set aside to provide clean energy manufacturing tax credits that were meant to create American jobs. &nbsp;Instead, $880 million of those tax credits went to <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2012/07/10/obama-vs-romney-lets-talk-about-outsourcing/">foreign firms</a>.</p><p>• A $337 million loan guarantee to Sempra Energy, a California based energy firm went toward the purchase of solar panels <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-administration-outsourced-jobs-stimulus-funding">from China</a>.</p><p>• Electric car company, <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2012/02/07/great-news-another-green-tech-stimulus-recipient-job-flop/">Fisker Automotive</a>, received a $529 million loan guarantee to establish an American manufacturing presence. &nbsp;Jobs were created when a facility was rolled out in Finland instead, because it turned out there were no facilities in the U.S. capable of creating their products.</p><p>• Over $4.3 billion of stimulus funding went either to overseas developers, or to overseas wind turbine manufacturers. &nbsp;This revelation prompted Senate Democrats to demand that the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33847.html">program be suspended</a>, with Chuck Schumer declaring (emphasis added) “The goal of the stimulus is to strengthen the <strong><em>American</em></strong> economy, and that means creating jobs here in the U.S. <em><strong>not in China</strong></em>."&nbsp;</p><p>The stimulus however, is simply a tidy starting point for outlining the fundamental economic flaws in the President’s plans. &nbsp;For what could be more unpatriotic than four years of the American people unnecessarily suffering through a miserable economic “recovery”?</p><p>Examples of the President’s ‘un-American’ economics:</p><p>• Despite being opposed by a <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform">54-41% margin</a>, Americans were force fed a health bill that recently was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cbo-obamacare-cost-1930-trillion-leave-30-million-uninsured_649066.html">$1.93 trillion</a>, while still leaving 30 million people uninsured.</p><p>• Between June of 2009 and today, 7.5 million Americans have&nbsp;<a href="http://news.investors.com/article/620878/201208031114/labor-force-shrinks-in-july.htm">dropped out</a> of the workforce.&nbsp;</p><p>• A recent report analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data states that the median household income <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-23/u-s-incomes-feel-more-in-recovery-sentier-says.html">for American families</a> dropped more during the alleged Obama recovery, than during the recession itself. &nbsp;One researcher described it as “an unprecedented period of economic stagnation” that has made “almost every group … worse off than it was three years ago”.</p><p>• Americans suffer on nearly a daily basis at the local gas station, with a gallon currently averaging&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2012/08/gas_prices_could_hit_holiday_r.html">$3.75</a>. &nbsp;When the President took office in January of 2009, the average cost of a gallon of gas was $1.79.</p><p>• What could be less ‘economically patriotic’ than issuing a deferred action executive order to halt the deportation of illegal immigrants, while subsequently awarding work permits to millions of those same illegals? This action puts law-breakers who have little respect for the sovereignty of our nation, on par with Americans and immigrants who have entered the country legally, leaving them to battle for jobs in an already difficult to crack workforce. &nbsp;Worse, the amnesty plan is estimated to cost those law-abiding <a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/morganbrittany/2012/08/20/the_high_price_of_obamas_amnesty/page/full/">American taxpayers</a> $585 million.</p><p>Strickland’s comments questioning the patriotism and economic platform of Mitt Romney could easily be construed as another example of gutter politics being exercised by the Obama campaign. &nbsp;</p><p>Or it can be interpreted in the following manner:</p><p>If anybody knows what it means to lack “economic patriotism”, it’d be the man currently leading the country off an economic cliff.&nbsp;</p></div></div></div>Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:34:26 +0000grusbf555545 at http://www.freedomworks.orghttp://www.freedomworks.org/content/true-lack-%E2%80%9Ceconomic-patriotism%E2%80%9D-white-house#comments